Bethlehem Man Acquitted In Drug Case

A Bethlehem man charged with selling methamphetamine to an undercover police officer outside a city bar on Dec. 6, 1984, was acquitted yesterday by a Northampton County jury of six men and six women.

Gilberto Rodriguez, 43, of 1322 E. 4th St., had been charged with possession, possession with intent to deliver and delivery of the drug. A former state police trooper who is now an agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency testified during the trial before Judge Michael V. Franciosa that Rodriguez sold him two packets of the drug outside Ray's Hotel in Bethlehem, where Rodriguez lived.

Rodriguez was one of many defendants arrested after a one-year investigation into drug trafficking by Bethlehem and state police.

At the trial, Carmen Aguiles Dilan, 24, of 914 Delaware Ave., Bethlehem, who was tending bar at the hotel that night, said that the agent had consumed a number of drinks.

Later in the day, Dilan entered a no-contest plea to a charge of theft by deception. She was originally charged with possession and delivery of a look- alike drug.

Police said she sold a packet of white powder that she said was cocaine to the same agent for $40 on Aug. 2, 1984.

Judge Robert A. Freedberg, who accepted her plea, fined her $250 and placed her on one year of probation. He also ordered her to pay $40 restitution.